Essay 7: Cages

A short post today. Homework beckons.

I’ve written recently about Benjamin’s amusement and fascination with the great outdoors. When nothing else will soothe, Nature answers the call.

I don’t think it’d be an overstatement or an oversimplification to say that I’ve spoiled him. I’ve ruined him with the beauty of Nature. We’ve noticed that in those places where he used to be content, he is learning that an outward, audible expression of listlessness will garner him a trip outside. To look, to admire, to stare, to absorb.

And so either he used to be content just to lie back pensive, or he never was and he’s simply learned to express it.

And he’s learned quite accurately, because Daddy really is quick to rush him outside.

I was remarking about this to a friend. A stranger, really. It was our first meeting. And he has several kids.

“It’s the weirdest thing,” he declared. “I find myself walking these moonlit street here in The Village at 2 in the morning with our youngest. She’ll do the same thing. She’ll get… ornery. As soon as we step outside, it stops.”

I’m glad to know I’m not alone in my discovery.

And what it really all comes down to is this- we were not created to be permanently indoors. God created man and then he placed him in a Garden- a garden that He made first.

It’s quite beautiful, that first chapter of Genesis. And because we’re not reading it in the original Hebrew, a lot of the poetry and symmetry is lost on us. Let me explain.

If we were to chart the days of Creation out themselves, we’d see a great symmetry. It’d look like this:

Day 1: Heaven and earth                       Day 4: Sun, moon, stars

Day 2: Water and sky                             Day 5: Fish and birds

Day 3: Land and vegetation                 Day 6: Animals and man

Did you catch it- the order to it all? There’s a great organization by the great Organizer. The first three days, God creates places, and then in the next three, He creates the things that go in those places.

Do you see it?

On Day 1, God created the heavens. On Day 4, He created the things that go in the heavens- He created the sun, moon, and stars. On Day 2, He created water and sky. On Day 5, He created the things that go in the water and sky- namely, birds and fish. On Day 3 He created land, and on Day 6 He created what goes on the land, man and animals.

A great symmetry, not lost on the original hearers of this oral tradition. But lost on us today. Each day’s created space aligns with what was created to go in that space. It’s as if God created a flower pot, a tea pot, and a water pot, then went back and created a flower for the flower pot, a tea bag for the tea pot, and water for the water pot.

Perfect congruence. Perfect symmetry. Perfect organization.

Our God is not a God of chaos.

And there are literally hundreds and hundreds of these little tidbits all present in the first chapter of Genesis. Far too much to write here. I cannot tell you how often people ask me how I can spend so much time studying the Scriptures without tiring of it. The answer is that it doesn’t tire of me. It never gives into my relentless pursuit because I’m no match for it. I’m no threat to it. The more I look, the more there is to be discovered. I’ll never exhaust it. It, however, will exhaust me.

Back to Benjamin.

If the symmetry present in the first chapter of Genesis is accurate, and it is, then that means just like fish were created for the sea, birds for the sky, the luminaries for the heavens, then people were created for life outside.

The first chapter of Genesis serves as the headline; the second as the news story. The first chapter tells THAT He created; the second tells HOW.

In Genesis 2, we read that God “formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (7). It goes on: “Now the Lord had created a garden in the east, in Eden; and there He put the man he had formed” (8).

Man was created for the Garden.

Birds for the sky, luminaries for the heavens, birds for the sea, and man for the Garden.

Is it any wonder that Benjamin prefers to be outside? Is it any wonder that the simple act of going through the threshold of our door soothes him? That crossing from indoor to outdoor makes gives him peace?

This is where he was created to be.

And so we see in Benjamin a great truth. In infancy, before the marks of the Fall, before the pangs of death, before the stains of sin or the imprint of nature or nurture, we witness something too young and too pure and too innocent to be the result of anything we’ve done. On his clean slate, his blank canvas, we see that man was created for outside.

It makes you wonder why we spend so much time in cages.

So many of us wander through our lives like caged animals, caught before our prime, tranquilized into accepting this imprisonment, domesticated into liking it, all the while we rage against it, wondering why we’re so unhappy.

We work jobs we hate. So that we can pay for things we don’t need. So that we can feel we’ve made it. So that we can convince people who don’t care that we’re worth something. So that we can convince ourselves that this was all worth something.

We live indoors. And we die young. We live ordinary lives and complain about not being happy. We miss our purposes and our callings and trade both of these for lies- for jobs that don’t matter and dreams that don’t fulfill. All the while freedom calls from outside the bars, “Die to yourselves, die to the lie. Get outside. DO something.”

But our cages have their advantages. There’s safety. Monotony. Predictions and expectations. It’s a cage and so while it steals freedom, it offers protection.

But we were created for life outside the cage. We were created for a Garden.

Sin has the exceptional ability to convince you you’re free from within the cage. It’s pretty ingenious, actually. If you never know you’re a slave, you’ll likely never yearn for freedom. And Christ offers freedom, a life not tied to the cage. He offers to spring the locks and set you free. Sure, there are risks. Maybe it’s not as safe as inside the cage from the cage’s standards, except He says He’s with you and He’s all powerful and He’ll protect you. But I digress.

I’m spiritualizing this when I only set out to say something purely physical…

So many of us walk around listless. Tired. Unhappy. Lazy. Bloated. Unfulfilled. Not doing ANYTHING that matters.

It seems worth mentioning that we weren’t created for our cubicles. We were created to be outside, enjoying what God made. And if materialism and sin have made you a slave to the cage, chances are it’s the root of your unhappiness.

Benjamin is proof you were meant to get outside.

So get outside.